Honor Flight Veterans Enjoy Nice Surprises

Honor Flights always provide a great day of very nice surprises for World War II Veterans and their guardians making the day-long trip to Washington, D.C. For Waterloo-area Veterans, Tuesday's trip this week was a 20-hour adventure. Their day started at 3:30 Tuesday morning, when they boarded a bus at Crossroads Center in Waterloo for am hour bus trip to the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids and a 7:00 AM flight. It was the first Honor Flight leaving directly from Cedar Rapids.

Upon arrival at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. the Iowa Veterans were surprised by a rousing airport welcome from perfect strangers. They lined the terminal to say ‘thank you' for the service of these Iowa Veterans so long ago.

Dedicated in 2004, the World War II Memorial has only been open for six years and more than 4-million people visit the memorial every year. It's located on the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.

There are 56 granite pillars, representing all of the states and territories of that time. each pillar rises 17-feet, and there are two, 43-foot arches, representing the Atlantic and Pacific theatres of conflict during the war.

Seven women were among the one hundred Eastern Iowa World War II Veterans on this week's latest Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. this was also the first Honor Flight to leave directly from the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

Marcia Courbat of Waterloo and Mary Rathbone of Cedar Falls were classmates at Fredericka High School ‘back in the day.' They were both WAC's during World War II, members of the Women's Army Corps.

Mary says, "I think it's long overdue. I had two brothers killed in World War II, so I really appreciate it."

Marcia adds, "We signed up about a year ago, and being our age, we thought--we'll never make it--and now we're here, and it's just awesome."